SQLFusion - Maverick lawyer and former MPP to testify

Guzzo To Take The Stand

Cornwall News AM 1220

November 13, 2007 — A long-time champion of the Cornwall Public Inquiry will take the stand today. Former Ottawa area M-P-P Garry Guzzo will begin his testimony today. Mr. Guzzo was vocal in the past over his concerns about child sex abuse allegations in the area. Meanwhile, there are still five weeks of testimony remaining before the inquiry breaks for the Christmas holidays. The hearings will then be on hold for a month.

Guzzo will hit the stand today at inquiry

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

13 November 2007

Posted By Terri Saunders

On May 30, 2001, Garry Guzzo stood in the legislature at Queen's Park, pieces of paper in hand, and began to speak. At the time, Guzzo was a Conservative backbencher representing the people of Ottawa West-Nepean. But in that moment, he had Cornwall on his mind. The former judge had spent several days leading up the May 30 session threatening to "name the names" of prominent men in the Cornwall area fingered as child molesters. The individuals in question had never been charged by police with any crime, but Guzzo was standing firm alongside a growing group of people in the city convinced authorities had not done enough to investigate the allegations. On top of that, Guzzo, who will take the stand at the Cornwall Public Inquiry today, was concerned these so-called pedophiles maintained contact with children through professional and volunteer work. "Some of these people continue to work in the community," Guzzo said at the time, "and they have positions of trust and positions of dominance over children." Guzzo's plan to read out a list of names once contained on a website known as projecttruth.com and later reiterated on its predecessor, projecttruth2.com, drew criticism from those who suggested such a move was not only unfair but illegal. In an effort to protect himself from any legal action, Guzzo said he would only read the names aloud in the legislature where he would be protected by parliamentary privilege. Doing so in public would have certainly made him a target. "There is absolutely no need on my part to invite lawsuits," Guzzo said, "and to see those civil suits keep me from speaking." On May 29, just one day before Guzzo was to follow through with his plan, then-Solicitor General David Turnbull stood in the legislature and announced investigations had not wrapped in Cornwall and that more charges could be laid in the future against more alleged perpetrators. "Charges may still be pending," said Turnbull, "and let me assure you that the book is not fully closed on whether charges will be laid."

In 1997, the Ontario Provincial Police launched Project Truth, a four-year investigation into allegations of historical child sexual abuse in Cornwall. All told, the probe would result in 115 charges being laid against 15 men. Officers with Project Truth laid no charges after Turnbull's May 29, 2001 statement in the legislature and in August of that same year, the OPP announced Project Truth had wrapped up its investigation after finding no evidence of a pedophile ring at work in the Cornwall area nor any conspiracy to cover one up.

This seemed to assuage Guzzo, who backed down from his plan and let the names remain a secret - in the legislature, anyway. The list had been public for months on both websites. Guzzo compelled then-Attorney General David Young to move quickly on the file and ensure any pending charges would be laid without delay. "The people of Cornwall are becoming frustrated," said Guzzo. "They're losing confidence in the justice system and they're losing confidence in this government." During his tenure in the legislature, Guzzo authored two separate bills related to abuse in Cornwall. Bill 103 sought an inquiry into police investigations of sexual abuse against minors in the Cornwall area and Bill 48 asked the government to establish a commission of inquiry to inquire into the investigations by police forces into sexual abuse against minors in the Cornwall area. In November 2004, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced an inquiry would be held in Cornwall and in April 2005 then-Attorney General Michael Bryant held a press conference in Cornwall to say the inquiry would commence in the fall of that year. So far, the inquiry has heard from 88 witness providing evidence on everything from the psychological impact of child sexual abuse to the corporate structure of police organizations in Ontario. Following Guzzo's testimony, the inquiry is expected to hear from Sean Adams, a city lawyer who acted for an alleged victim of sexual abuse who received a cash settlement from the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese in the early 1990s. David Silmser, who alleges he was sexually abused by Rev. Charles MacDonald, has told the inquiry he signed documents accepting $32,000 from the church and promising to never make any legal claim against any of the parties. Unfortunately, Silmser now says he didn't exactly read the fine print. On the day he went to sign the agreement, Silmser says MacDonald came into the diocese's main office, walking right by him in the process. Silmser said he felt so rattled by the priest's presence he signed whatever was put in front of him in order to leave the building as quickly as possible. "None of these documents were ever explained to me," Silmser testified. "I just had the papers in front of me . . . to sign." Silmser said at the time he believed Adams was acting in his best interests. "I put my trust in Sean," Silmser said. "I trust (him) to make sure it was proper."

The inquiry begins today at 1 p.m.

[theinquiry.ca note: The names Guzzo intended to announce in the legislature were specifically those of several of the 27 men who had been investigated by Project Truth and whose files were with the Attorney General. Evidence at the sex abuse trial of Jacques Leduc revealed that the files had been sitting in the office of the AG since the Fall of 1999. No charges had been – or were ever - laid against any of the 27. CBC radio broke the news that one of those files was that of Eugene Larocque, then bishop of the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall]